Downtown Las Vegas has its problems–flat or declining revenues for its casinos, and uncertainty about where it’s going. Will the Arts District lead to a full-blown gentrification of the area, or will a new arena draw crowds? While those questions remain, teh city is trying to help out by sprucing up what has traditionally been a very tourist-unfriendly area, Fremont East. From KLAS:
A multi-million dollar re-do of an area in downtown Las Vegas is finished. It’s called Fremont East. Downtown doesn’t have a great reputation for being safe, but the city hopes the new area will change that.
Tonight there is a big lighting ceremony to show off the improvements. When you spend $5.5 million to try to transform an area, it better have a visible impact. A giant martini glass is part of the three block transformation. Tonight, it will be lit up at 7:45 p.m.
But that’s not all they’ve done down here. The project started in January, a public-private partnership between local businesses and the city. That means both the city and businesses pitched in the money.
Workers widened sidewalks, improved the landscaping, and created an arched gateway that will be lighted. There are four 40-foot tall retro-looking neon signs. The area is obviously trying to capitalize on Glitter Gulch’s old reputation in a good way.
Mayor Oscar Goodman calls it a Renaissance from Fremont Street East’s reputation for crime and drugs. “The perception is that it’s dangerous. It’s not dangerous. I’ve walked there every single day. It shouldn’t be scary because if you talk to Metro, they’re going to tell you it’s as safe a place as there in any community.”
Part of the goal is to try to lure some of the 18 million people out of Fremont Street every year, and try to get some of them to venture to the new businesses in the area.
Las Vegas Now – Breaking News, Local News, Weather, Traffic, Streaming Video, Classifieds, Blogs – Fremont Street East to Show Off Multi-Million Dollar Improvements
Watching the live report this morning, something struck me: this is basically beautifying a stretch of street where the main businesses are check cashing places and bars. Now, I’ve gone to poetry readings at the Beauty Bar (which is one of the bars in question), and I think it’s a welcome alternative to the casino club scene and the ubiquitous video poker dens. So I’m not saying that there’s something wrong with Fremont East–on the contrary, I’ll continue to go there when I’m downtown.
But only in Vegas could putting neon lights up around bars and a check cashing place be considered a high point of civic involvement. It makes me wonder whether the money could have been better spent on something like, oh, law enforcement or schools instead. This being Vegas, though, we get a big neon martini glass, and all is well.